Three days of career fairs offer something for everybody

By Chuck Gordon

Career fairs aren't just for juniors and seniors anymore.

This week, the Office of Career Pathways is hosting three afternoon-long career-exploration events, consisting of a networking lunch, a panel discussion featuring local employers, and a two-hour career fair in the Batte Center Rotunda.

On Tuesday's first session, which was geared toward education and the arts and sciences, there was a heavy freshman presence among the attendees.

Sanai Dingle, a freshman biology major from Charlotte, is considering a career in veterinary medicine, among other possibilities. She was pleasantly surprised to see employees from Carolina Waterfowl Rescue manning a booth, having wanted to do wildlife rehabilitation but not being sure where to turn.

By chatting with them, Dingle found out how important it could be to do an internship early in her college career - and with an organization that doesn't focus on dogs and cats.

"If I do go into the veterinary field, it is a pretty strenuous field, so making sure that's something I want to go into is important," she said. "They said that a lot of people who do internships in the pre-vet field don't get a lot of experience with birds and reptiles and all those other animals."

The career fair is for all class years, but there has been an emphasis at Wingate in recent years on exposing more freshmen and sophomores to career exploration, to get them to think earlier and more deeply about their futures.

All freshmen at Wingate take One Dog 101, a first-year seminar that helps set the stage for their next four years. All students in those classes are required to attend at least one day of the career fair this week, and Dr. Mayra Martinez-Rosales, associate director of career pathways operations, says it will help them with an important skill: talking to employers.

"I think they get out of their comfort zone a little bit, because they are so used to talking to people their age or their peers," Martinez-Rosales said. "Talking to people who are adults, and in a professional setting, can be a little bit different. It really pushes them to do that, which I think they might not get otherwise."

For Dr. Mary Jordan, director of career services, the best part of the career fair is the employer panel. On Tuesday, representatives from the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department, the Fort Mill (S.C.) School District, InReach, Freedom School Partners, and Carolina Waterfowl Rescue gave students advice about preparing their resume, researching companies, getting ready for an interview, and standing out compared with other applicants.

Over the three days, 59 companies and organizations have set up shop in the rotunda to talk to students. Thirty-six of those are new to Wingate career fairs.

"The word is out, about Wingate and Wingate students, and that's exciting for us," Jordan says.

She said that it's especially beneficial for students to hear what the Office of Career Services tries to hammer home - provide information in a timely manner, have four people look over your resume before you submit it, do practice interviews - from someone in the field.

"Some of the responses I loved the most are the things we say all the time," Jordan said, "but they hear it in a different way when it comes from an employer. We can say these things until we're blue in the face, but when an employer says it, it speaks volumes."

"They talked about what they want and what they're looking for, which is really important, obviously," said Eileen Esquivel, a freshman elementary education major. "I also really liked 'know your why,' which got me thinking about why I want to do what I want to do, because obviously you want to have a job that you love so it doesn't feel like you're going to work every day."

Wednesday's fair was focused on health sciences, and this afternoon's session will be tilted toward business and sport sciences. But Jordan said that no matter your major, it can be valuable to come to the career fair all three days.

"These are 'careers in,' not 'school of,' fairs," she said. "The public schools need businesspeople too."

Freshman Eli Marcano came to Tuesday's fair despite being a biology major. After all, he might want to teach biology one day.

"It opened my eyes," he said. "If I want to go down this pathway, there's an opportunity for me to. A lot of the employers made me realize, OK, this is a real career that I can have."

Like a lot of freshmen, Dingle is still mulling over her career options. That's why the fair is so valuable, she said.

"I just want to be as prepared as possible, as far as learning about the job market and what people who are hiring are looking for," she said. "I'm just trying to get as much information as possible. I don't know if I may change my major or if I may find a different field within my major. I'm just being open-minded to all aspects of what I like to do."

Learn more about career pathways at Wingate.

Oct. 22, 2026